By now, you should have assigned and graded several informal assessments. How have you been using the results of these assessments to improve how you teach and what students learn? What strategies has your CT suggested for providing students with guidance before they do the assignment to improve their performance? What about after the assignment?
- I feel that informal assessments are what is used a majority of the time when I work on improving my teaching. It is this type of quick results and feedback that gauges my direct teaching. When I ask the students questions, when they ask me questions, when I observe their actions and work, and when I even observe their body language, I can instantly see if a majority of the students are understanding the material or not. It is these little things that I don't even realize I am doing half the time, that allows me to alter what I am doing or saying, to make sure that I am reaching them. It is often easy to talk above their heads or too fast paced, just because I am more advanced in the content subject matter than they are. So just like my CT advised me...slow down, ask questions and rotate around the room.
- Formal assessments give me more of a broader range of topics that I could improve on. If for example I know I lectured through a concept without any visuals and on a test a majority of the students did poorly, then I know more than to improve on teaching that subject, but I know not to teach ANYTHING by just lecturing!
- My CT suggested that I asked questions to the students, allow them to ask me questions, never sit at the desk and do my own work when they are doing theirs, and go TO students who are too quiet/shy to go to you to ask a question. Some students would sit in their seats and never raise their hand, even when they don't understand a whole assignment. By going over to them, and circulating between the rows, it is much easier to see if anyone might need help, if every one is one task, and if they are doing it correctly.